By Sohaib Shams
Bomb threats disrupted flights across multiple European countries on Thursday, marking the second such widespread incident in a week and causing significant travel chaos. More than a dozen flights were affected in the UK, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Finland, Bulgaria, Spain, and Denmark.
Flights diverted and escorted
A Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome was safely escorted by Italian Air Force jets after a bomb threat. Two other Finnair flights, from Helsinki to Rome and Helsinki to Vienna, also received hoax threats but landed safely. Ryanair aircraft from Copenhagen and Madrid landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, where inspections found no issues.
Bulgaria and UK impacts
Bulgarian authorities said inspections of three Ryanair planes at Sofia and Plovdiv airports revealed no problems, and operations returned to normal. In the UK, threats at Heathrow and Birmingham airports were resolved early Thursday. A government spokesperson said the UK has robust aviation security systems to handle such hoaxes.
Cyberattacks on supermarkets and blood banks
The bomb threats follow a series of cyberattacks across Europe. On Monday, hackers tampered with supermarket refrigeration systems in eight countries, forcing stores to discard large quantities of food. On Wednesday, the French health ministry reported a cyberattack on blood bank cold storage monitoring systems.
